Martial Arts Business Marketing

How to Build A New Martial Arts Business Very Quickly (And/Or) Inject Some Life Back Into Your Existing Martial Arts School.

A FREE Ebook for The Martial Arts Business World
Are you are looking to grow your martial arts business? Good because this detailed report combines to valuable resources that we have produced in recent years. With, of course, updates.

Whether you’re a veteran school owner or you’re new to the business you’ll discover proven secrets, including…

How to successfully start from scratch, even when the odds are against you.

How to negotiate with the three types of Landlords.

The right way to invest in your own property.

The ultimate marketing plan to fill any school at warp speed.

How to master the art of networking and leverage your contacts.

How to quickly get into the local school system even when you are brand new.

The easiest ways to get maximum referrals in minimum time.

Where to look for financing so you don’t have to use your own money.

The three deadly mistakes new schools make and how you can avoid them.

How to Bring Your Martial Arts Business Back From The Brink of Failure

Hit The Ground Running

How to Build A New School Very Quickly

By: Mike Dolpies of http://www.martialartofbusiness.com/

Before we begin our journey through the next few pages together I feel that it is important that you know a few things that will be of tremendous value to you.

If you currently own a mature school this article is still for you because you can easily take any of these strategies and use them at any time to help supercharge your school with new students and new excitement. So please don’t close your mind because you are not in the process of opening a “new school.”

This is an autobiographical work based on the exact steps that I took to secure a space, build it out and subsequently fill it with students very quickly. In fact, it was done so well that onlookers would question: “So, how long has this school been here, a couple of years?” Our response would laughingly be; “Actually, just a few months!” As we go through how everything unfolded you’ll also benefit from my up to date knowledge and commentary as well.

Next: I’m not pulling any punches! I’m going to give you the kick by kick details. I’m going to reveal some profitable secrets plus some huge mistakes that you can avoid. I’m going to lay out a simple plan that you can use to duplicate my results. “What results?” you ask. That brings me to my next point.

Reality! The truth is that building a new school from scratch and getting it to a profitable point very quickly is not easy. That is reality. The results any owner of a brand new school is looking for is to have over one hundred active, committed students within sixty to ninety days of commencing business. The reality is that having over 100 students within sixty to ninety days can almost guarantee your long term success!

Are you ready for a fun and exciting journey that has as much action as a Jackie Chan movie, but is as real as the old days of the UFC? Good, then let’s get going.

How to build your school quickly even with the odds stacked against you.

For those of you that have followed my work over the years you know that I frequently write and speak about the game of odds. There are ways to open a new school with the odds in your favor or with the odds against you. I’d certainly recommend the later to all of our readers. But here’s the interesting concept. If I can do it with certain odds not in my favor, than you can open a new school and fill it very quickly by putting the right odds in your favor. Makes sense right?

Text Box: For a Complimentary Martial Arts Marketing DVD (just pay $5 shipping) Visit… http://www.martialartsbusinesssystem.com/video/If you are opening with zero students, as I did, it is absolutely critical to your school’s survival that you save this magazine and book mark this article and keep it within reach. If you are opening with a few students because you have had a program in a“ Rec Center” then you’ll be way ahead of the game and the odds will be more in your favor when you follow the wisdom and guidance that I set forth for you.

A Warning

Before I move forward let me quickly speak to some of those “instructors” out there that have the itch to go out on their own. No article on opening a new school would be complete without hitting on an ugly reality of our industry.

Speak to your employer/owner at the school you work for. It is not as easy as it looks and there are costs that go along with all of those $169.00 per month contracts!

Unfortunately in our industry of honor and integrity some naïve instructors get the bright I idea that “they can do it better” and open up a new school with the intention of stealing students from the school that employed them. This is not a marketing plan! And the truth is that it usually back fires.

I have a friend in Canada whose instructor left him a couple of years back to “do his own thing.” Yeah – he took some students and put my friend in a tough position. But two years later the instructor who left closed his school and he is now working as a security guard! The kicker was that the instructor who left my friend was making more money working for my friend than most owners make! I have also been through this experience myself and have clients that have been through it as well. In all cases the instructor’s plan of easy money never really worked out. So a quick note to all of you aspiring instructors turned school owners or future security guards: Get the blessing of you boss and the guidance to open a profitable business built on solid integrity! Ok, now back to our story.

How to open from scratch

Ok – lets’ assume you are starting from zero like so many of us have. Let’s then assume that you are in a brand new town and don’t know a soul because you just moved there. Now let’s assume that you realize that the above two facts are not in your way at all, but actually in your corner. We’ll get back to this in a second, but first our school needs a place to call home.

Real world secrets for finding the right location – the three types of landlords

You need a space for your school. Depending on your budget, but more importantly your vision and goals, you are looking for “A,” “B,” or “C” retail space. For martial arts schools “A” space is expensive and hard to come by. In most markets you are talking twenty to forty dollars (and sometimes more) per square foot. A “B” location may serve you well but with it still comes the reality that the landlord will prefer some established company and a business they “understand” over your brand new Martial Arts school.

With a “B” location you must bring your poker face to the negotiation. Don’t get emotionally attached because the space is next to the local Goddard School and Nail Salon chain anchored by a big grocery store with high visibility. Don’t get discouraged if there are no vacancies because in many cases a good center will never have visible vacancies. Call and don’t be shy. Of course if there is a vacancy you’ll be better equipped when you negotiate.

When dealing with a “B” landlord have a couple of “C’s” or other “B’s” that you are talking to as well. The reality is that “A” and “B” landlords eat small business owners for breakfast and don’t even bother to spit out their bones. You’ll need to be very professional and you will be better off having an agent represent you. Just remember that the agent gets paid by the landlord who gets paid by you. When negotiating with “B’s” be ready to walk or run if you have to. As negotiating expert, Herb Cohen says, “Care, but not that much!”

When you talk to the owner of a “C” center you’ll have some leverage in the process and there’s a good chance that there will be a current vacancy. “C” centers have a higher turn over rate not because the center is bad but because they take on in-experienced business owners who go out of business – not rocket science.

The “C” landlord is constantly dealing with slow payments for rents and tenants who cry the blues. Use this to your advantage. Just remember he has heard, “Mr. Landlord, I want to pay you your rent every month and I want to be here for a long time” so much that he will finish the sentence for you after you begin. So please spare him the warm and fuzzies! Be very matter-of-factly and present your simple success plan along with your research as to why this is a good demographic for your business. Be very upfront, polite and direct, yet persistent if you know that you want the space and are happy with the rent.

What will get any “C” landlord’s attention the fastest is having a prospective tenant that can get him a signed lease and rent payments to help alleviate his cash flow problems. In a lot of ways the “C” landlord needs you as much as you need him.

The fourth option you should seriously consider is the idea of purchasing your own land. The best advice I could give you if you want to go this route is: If it makes sense, go for it! You must carefully consider the numbers. The big numbers to consider are the cost of renovations, government red tape like zoning and usage laws and the upside potential of appreciation. Of course the total asking price goes without saying.

Done right this can be dream come true. Another friend of mine owns two acres in Southern New Jersey on a main road. He has very modest house in front and in the back is a 3000 square foot building that his school has been in for the last fifteen years. He has a one minute commute and his school has paid his mortgage off many times over.

Regardless of which option you choose just be ready to negotiate and don’t be intimidated!

Now let’s fill your school with students, very quickly

You’ve found your dream space, now what? Now you’ve got to get to work. And remember it is more important that you put your marketing clothes on rather than your painting clothes!

Let’s assume that you don’t know anyone in the town where you are opening your school. The fist step is for you to join your local Chamber of Commerce. By joining your local Chamber you will get to know the local movers and shakers in your area.

In the photo with the big scissors standing next to me was the town mayor and standing next to my wife was the town committee man. Both came to the grand opening party because we were members of the local chamber of commerce and had made some connections. In addition to getting to know movers and shakers there are two other secrets and opportunities hidden in the local Chamber.

One secret hidden in the Chamber is the fact that they are always looking for speakers. You can easily be a guest speaker at a meeting by simply presenting some good ideas to the person who puts the agenda together. They are always looking for ways to benefit their members while filling up meeting time. If you goto http://www.martialartofbusiness.com/ you can get access to some more in depth ideas for working with groups in your community.

The next way to leverage your local Chamber of Commerce is to get their directory and look through it to find businesses that cater to your prospective students. If you are working with kids, then pre-school owners, dance school owners, fitness club owners and more can all be found and connected with through the local Chamber. I met the director of the local adult school who also turned out to be the director of the town summer camp that had 600 plus kids enrolled for the summer. I also met the head of the Recreation department who turned out to have a camp that had 200 kids. The Rec department contact was also in charge of all local community events that were also opportunities for demos and further networking.

The first step to being invited to work with local businesses that have your prospects is to become trusted. Getting on the phone and personally visiting every pre-school and after school program in your area prior to opening will give you a huge advantage. Your goal is to get a special “guest visit” scheduled. With pre-schools setting these up is as easy as one phone call or one visit. With the schools and after school programs it takes a little more work, that’s why joining your Chamber and other organizations to build friendships, is important. Remember to be very low key in your approach.

You need to have fifteen or more “guests visits” set. The big secret is to have each one lead to a special day where that group can come back to your school by way of “special” invitation. Done right, you will have qualified prospects show up to your school within a day or so of your “guest visit.” Each scheduled follow up class is carefully planed to lead to nine out of every ten prospects to subsequently make arrangements for a follow up private lesson where you will enroll them. Do the math: Fifteen “guest visits” that generate seventy to eighty prospects back to your school. From there, when you do it right, you’ll end up with forty or so enrollments just from this one strategy! This was a big one for me and I know it will work for you!

Under the radar ways to get into the school system.

Many of you may complain that being “new” makes it harder to get into the local schools. To that I say “shame on you!” I already told you how I began to network and build my contacts to open doors for me that subsequently led to students very quickly. But for those of you who want to stand firm on how hard it is to get into the schools. Let me quickly make you a believer and tell you how I got fliers handed out in every elementary school classroom in my town without even being officially “open.”

The real secret was the contacts that I had gotten to know and, more importantly, who had gotten to know me in a favorable way. I know that for most martial-arts schools in the children’s market getting “into the schools” is a huge homerun. So how did I get into the schools with my fliers being a “brand new” school?

One of my contacts was the head at the local Recreation department. In one of our conversations I mentioned that I’d be doing a totally free “bully buster” class for all local kids and I was wondering what the best way to get the word out would be. I said to her: “It sure would be great to get the announcements for the free class passed out through the schools, but it seems like they lump all businesses together and don’t want to be accused of giving any particular one special treatment.” She agreed, but then suggested that there was a way around that. She said: “

All we have to do is put the Rec. department on as an endorser of the course.” “Would you do that?” was my response. She said: “It really seems to me that this is a good class for local kids and bullying is always a problem, so yes we can do that.” Bingo, Fliers in the schools.

How to get the very most out of each ‘grass roots” activity

I want to take a breath right here and point out a couple of things to you. Be sure to leverage and protect all of your contacts and nurture the relationships forever.

The way to get the very most out of each grass roots activity is to be sure that you are collecting contact info via a permission slip. With the “guest visit” classes the permissions slips are given to all the students, not just the ones who show back up to your school. With the bully buster class contact info is taken from everyone when they call and register for the event. This is how you build your own mailing list very quickly!

Real world reality- Your marketing budget and plan

If you think for a second that you are going to get your school off the ground very quickly without putting some investment into a marketing budget than you are living in a Martial Arts business fantasy world. The answer is yes, you need a marketing budget and a plan for its allocation. Another very important point that I want to drive home is that money toward basic build out is needed in most cases. But beyond the basics of the build out you should invest in marketing before you invest in Mats and other “luxuries.” A guy once told me how he spent a ton of money making his school look like a Japanese Palace. Guess what, he spent so much time and money on doing that to the neglect of actual marketing and went belly up!

When opening a new school you’ll be wise to invest a large part of your Marketing budget into targeted direct mail. (If you’d like a free email course: “How to Master Direct Mail for Martial Arts Schools” to give you the insider information you need to make it a success visit: http://www.quickkaratesalesletters.com/

With direct mail you can target the people you want to teach more effectively. The key is in the sequence and the timing of the sequence. If your carpet will be down on Tuesday morning than you can do an intro on Tuesday night! Your first piece of mail should be in your prospects hands by Monday at the latest! The letter you see in the picture is the exact “homerun” letter I used as a first step in my direct mail sequence. People actually walked in to the school with the letter in their hands!

As far as timing goes: You want the first letter and the first newspaper ad to be out a little before, but not too much before, you are physically capable of doing an intro.

After the above sequence you can ease your direct mail to once or twice per month and continue your newspaper advertising based on your results. I have always found direct mail reliable. But newspapers have sometimes been inconsistent. By this time you should easily have your one hundred student target in plain view.

Religious phone and direct mail follow up must be performed on all of your leads that did not sign up yet. Before we give you some tips on quickly getting a large amount of referrals from your current students let’s talk a little more about your marketing budget for a second.

Like I said, you need a marketing budget to do this right! If you are dead broke, with no students and have no way of getting the capital required to market properly then you should stick with your j-o-b! But if you want to, you can probably get a small micro loan from the SBA or a local small business funding source. Just go to Google and type in “(your state) small business start up and micro lenders.” Of course, consult an attorney before you sign anything! Micro loans are usually under $50,000 and are based on your credit, your collateral, and your business plan. Like I said, I am not an accountant or an attorney and I don’t play either on TV so read the fine print!

How to get maximum referrals in minimum time

Let’s face it, school spirit and smart marketing drive referrals. What a new school has going for it is fun, excitement and high moral. All of these factors can help you get referrals. In short, the goal is to have your first fifty students bring you your next fifty students.

As soon as you have your first class you must begin motivating your students to bring their friends. The easiest way is to make it fun. Themed “bring a buddy” weeks along with prizes and parties work great. As part of my grand opening referral drives I gave away an Ipod, cash, a lunch with me and hosted a huge grand opening bash where we had face painting, free food, games, and a ribbon cutting. All these events centered on getting the students to introduce their friends to the school. It is important that you get all contact info and follow up with all referrals.

Make your new school the place to be and you’ll have no problems filling it up. Be sure to keep the spirit high by constantly letting your new students know what is coming next that is going to be huge fun. Like I tell my MA-Biz Secret Society clients; “You can’t argue with the entertainment industry and martial arts schools have to find that happy balance between education and entertainment.”

How to handle your flood of new students and your fast growing business

It’s a fragile egg and you need to handle it with care. Be sure that you are over delivering and teaching some great classes. Nothing kills a bad school faster than good marketing! If you do everything I mentioned above you will be busy and you will need help. If you are starting from scratch it may be difficult to find staff that can help you. You must always remember that as the owner your skills and personality drive the business. This is especially true if, like most of us, you are an owner/instructor.

If you want to grow quickly and keep growing you will have to hire someone to help you. Let’s face it, the minute you begin teaching you can no longer answer the phone. For me it was my lovely wife Jamie who helped me get the new school rockin’! But for some of you who do not have the ability to have the help of a spouse I’d recommend carefully selecting a program director and training them on how to answer the phone, handle walk-ins, intros and day to day operations. You can only go so far totally on your own.

Your Website

As a new school you have an amazing opportunity to showcase your professionalism on the web. Sadly, most martial arts business websites are set up poorly. Done right you can actually position your school above the competition even if they have been there for many years. Make sure your site is designed right! If you have a website now and have a feeling it could be doing more for you be sure to check out this Complimentary Web Marketing Audit to see where you stand: http://www.cyberspacetoyourplace.com/48

Moving On…

The three big mistakes new schools make and how to avoid them

If you follow the guidelines in this article you will increase your odds of success dramatically. Be sure that you avoid these three deadly mistakes.

New school deadly mistake number 1- Bad Math:

The numbers must add up. From the beginning you need to know how many students you want based on the highest dollar amount you can command for your program. This number is better off to be on the conservative end. So if you want your school to earn $30,000 per month you can do that by having 150 contracts in place at a value of $200 per contract per month. Most new school owners charge way too little for their program and assume they will “make it up in volume.” Bet on small numbers and high tuition making your school exclusive.

New school deadly mistake number 2- Not having an upgrade program in place from day one:

You need to have your Black Belt Club or whatever you want to name it in place from the beginning. Schools with higher priced more committed upgrade programs have a higher student retention. With a new school you need a lot of enrollments and a very good retention number if you want to grow fast. (See Picture 7)

New school deadly mistake number 3 – Unrealistic expectations:

Business is not easy. But some new school owners think that owning a school is hanging around in your pajamas all day and dealing with the lines of people who want you to teach them. Not the case. Yes there are ways to get people to line up and pay for your classes, but they happen by way of taking certain actions not by luck or chance.

The Next Part of This FREE Ebook…

The Art of the Comeback: How to Go From the Brink of

Bankruptcy to a Thriving Business in Less Than 6 Months

Adapted from an Article By: Brett Lechtenberg

Having your business go from hero to the zero can be a painful experience. At the same time, such an experience often presents the greatest opportunities to revitalize your business while bringing in a whole new wave of customers, especially in times of changing needs.

I had to bring my martial arts schools back from near collapse. They were in extremely bad shape. I was running my schools in a couple of locations with good success, only to have everything gone haywire within a short period of time.

What should have been the evolution of a new era, for me exploring new business opportunities, it turned out to be disastrous. I was taking on new challenges at a time when I should have been focusing on expanding on the success of my schools. And as you can guess, the business began to deteriorate and it all went downhill from there.

A number of things begin to collapse. My manager was losing faith. Staff began to lose faith. Everyone was so used to the business performing at a peak that when the business started losing its ground, billing dropped to an all time low. Student count dropped to an all time low. Active student count dropped to an all time low. Our business was like an airplane spiraling down to its doom.

The initial number of staff I had running three locations was reduced to a number that could barely run one location. Billing as well as cash receivables dropped to a level well below par. I was practically facing the exit from a potential multi-million dollar business.

With barely anything more to lose, I decided to get my act together and refocus on the basics. When your business is in a downward spin, it is absolutely essential that you sit down, face the facts and make a good solid evaluation of your business to propel yourself forward.
The Beginning Of A Turnaround

I now want to go through some basic keys that on the surface, looks simple, but that you really need to focus on. If you make use of these keys in times of business setbacks, there is no doubt that you will be able to make a smooth transition and steer your business in the right direction very quickly.

The first thing that we did was to seriously take a look at our current position and current state of business. We had to honestly evaluate what had gone wrong. From staff training to cash management to our marketing plans, every aspect of the business had to be put under the microscope.

After this initial round of evaluation, we had to analyze how we could turn around the business over the next six to twelve months. There was no time to lose, so we decided to take the following actions immediately.

Reset weekly goals based on cash flow numbers and enrollment instead of focusing on monthly goals. We evaluated our goals and decided that we were going to enroll four students per week. It was as simple as that. Where these students came from did not matter. Most importantly, the target of enrolling four new paying students a week, students who have signed an agreement, was met.

We then decided to upgrade a minimum of two people per week to our upper level training programs, such as the leadership club. In addition, we would upgrade at least one person into our advanced leadership program or a higher program such as personal training clientele programs. Resource: To get some tips on easily setting and reaching your school’s goals go to: http://www.martialartsbusinesssystem.com/video/

As for a realistic target of revenue in our situation, we set a minimum of $3000 a month in cash, and to increase our billing per month by $2500. These numbers may vary based on the financial structure of your business, but are nonetheless realistic goals. Focusing your targets on the weeks and on the months is the key to covering short and longer-term progress of your business.
Transforming The Image Of Your Martial Arts Business

Next, we decided to channel positive energy and remodel our school. This was done mainly through cost-saving methods. We changed the paint, rearranged interior decorations and worked at transforming the image of our school. You can easily do these things with minimal money and focused energy. One of our students, who is an interior decorator, even gave us ideas and passionately helped out with transforming our image.

Within a few weeks, the school had a totally new look to it even though many of the original items and decorations were still there. By creating a new branding image and a new company logo, what we essentially did was created a new marketing campaign.

That re-creation of our business image was important. We decided to shape things up on every level. I brought my wife, who is excellent and experienced with customer service, back to the school. We retrained her on the more current policies and put her back into action. The fact is that nobody takes care of the school, or for that matter any business like the owner does. That image recreation and focused energy transformed our school.

The next thing that I did was to hire a friend, who was also a business consultant, to give me honest feedback about the details he saw in my business plan and operations that could be improved or further developed upon. I cannot stress enough the importance of having a set of eyes and perception coming from the outside of your business. This is crucial to help you evaluate your current position and how your business can realistically develop both over the short term and long term.

You should always explore outside your business once in awhile to get some fresh ideas that could benefit your business in more ways than you can imagine. This has always brought me back ten-fold of the creative ideas inspired from the outside that I put into my business.

Our next focus was to simplify anything that we possibly can and automate anything that can be automated. Upon evaluation, we realized that there were many things that could have been done to improve the flow of the business and to ease the burden of the business by integrating technology. That was one of the main focuses. We used software to manage marketing plans and other aspects of the business. Our training materials were laid out in a way that was easy available and could be implemented effectively and efficiently.

Continuous development and progress of your business is an absolute must. This principle resulted in us cutting staff and keeping payroll and operating expenses, not to mention stress levels, down. Among other things, we discovered that our staff training was more efficient at different times of the day. Naturally, we changed the timing and frequency of the training. Instead of two days a week of two hours, we had four days a week for one hour. This increased staff productivity immensely.

The point I want to bring across here is that thinking outside the box is extremely important to the development of your business.

Since we had everything in place, the plan was to have a huge new influx of students. Call it a brand new wave if you will. We created and announced a brand new marketing plan to generate this new wave of customers. You see, bringing in student-referred clients is a matter of how much you want to ‘open up the spicket of the hose’. Take massive action if you want the water to come gushing out!
The Three Rules Of A Good Business

There are three huge components that you must remember and each of these components has three parts. I call this the three rules of a good business that many people fail to follow.

The first rule: Take care of your customers first. Whatever is in the best interest of your customers, you should aim to satisfy that.

The second rule: Do what is best for your business based on what your customers want. This involves positioning your business in a direction that is most effective in meeting their goals and fulfilling their desires.

The third rule: Take care of yourself as an owner. Help as many people get what they want to get what you want. In essence, by applying the first two, you are taking care of yourself. These three rules are extremely effective in boosting the success of your business.
The Three ‘A’s Of Customer Service

While the three ‘A’s of customer service are not something new, they will make a significant difference to your business. Back then, our business was at its peak for so long, with strong relationships with our customers, and then came the downturn. We felt that we had to get in touch with our previous clients.

The first ‘A’ is acknowledge – to acknowledge the problem. For everything that had gone south and let slipped, we apologized to our customers for that. It was a humbling experience. We sent out letters to the customers to gather feedback to improve our business. We honestly evaluated the negative points of our business that have been gathered in the feedback and implemented the three rules to a good business, vastly improving the business based on the feedback.

Essentially the 3 ‘A’s are summarized above: Acknowledge, apologize and act. Always remember them and apply it to your business to provide excellent customer service.
The Big Three Focuses Of A Martial Arts School

Now we focus on what we call The Big Three. These three focuses of a martial arts school can make all the difference in whether it turns out to be successful or gets flushed down the toilet.

Staff training is the first of the three focuses. Our staff members go through training every week consistently. They are trained not only in the physical aspect of the curriculum but in the business aspect as well. This includes how to properly greet a potential customer, proper phone etiquette, how to professionally enroll a student without resulting in confusion, and tips on making them feel good about the buying decision they have made. Doing so keeps them happy in the long term.

The mistake that many business owners make is getting caught up with their own business and neglecting the physical training of the martial arts business. That should never happen because it is extremely important for a martial artist to be in tune the essence of the martial arts business – the martial arts itself!

The second focus is marketing. When we made our big changes after retooling, we had our staff trained in marketing too. We had to realign our goals with our marketing plan. Simply put, if you do not market your business, you will have no influx of customers. Failure to focus on marketing is one of the biggest mistakes business owners make which cause their business to fail within the first two years of starting up. As the saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

The last focus of the big three is the culture of the school. It is absolutely essential to the success of your martial arts school to create a culture that makes people want to be there. This culture of respect has to be present throughout the different channels of communications, from referrals to respect between students and teachers, between business and customers and parents.

Plus, there should be positive energy and nurturing where people are working hand-in-hand to reach goals, be it the attainment of a black belt or other personal goals. With such an environment, people are naturally attracted to the vibe.

Let us recap The Big Three – staff training, marketing and culture. If you had to pick one to start off with, you should focus on staff training. Like a river that splits into different streams, your staff can be trained to take care of the different aspects of the business. They are vital in keeping the culture of the school going. Equally important, they can be trained to handle customers professionally and effectively. Therefore if you want your business to function effectively, remember not to neglect proper staff training.
A Proper Mindset Is Everything

If your business is experiencing a downturn, or perhaps you are taking over the operations of a school or that things are not going your way, a wise question to ask yourself would be, “Am I the positive role model?”

Focus on radiating positive energy and mindset and focus on The Big Three – staff, marketing and culture. Now, I do not want to sound strange or metaphysical or anything like that. But ultimately, a positive mindset and energy are everything. Focus on the things that you are truly after that makes the most sense to you.

In a nutshell, these are the things we did to turn our school around from the brink of financial bankruptcy to a highly successful business. Our student count has multiplied ever since. Billing checks have been fixed. Our customer service has improved tremendously and our business in general, has become a positive prototype model that anyone could run.

Always look on the bright side of things while taking action in the present, and your future success will be well taken cared of.

We hope you enjoyed this ebook and will share with other martial arts business owners.